Here in Baltimore today, the Occupy Movement will have demonstrations honoring the legacy of Dr. King, and protesting the policies of politicians who never have funds for education, for jobs or any worthwhile endeavor, but somehow can find $100 million for new PRISONS for youth. The new facilities are appearing in parts of the inner city of East Baltimore where I once lived, and where moat of my relative in the city still live. Dr. King planned a huge occupation for the Poor Peoples Campaign when he was slain. We will take up the legacy of that struggle. I hope you're also moving in your community as well. For justice, for democracy. Death to plutocracy and racism. Victory to the 99%!
Listen to DEMOCRACY NOW! Amy Goodman will be playing speeches of Dr. King, and not just "I have a Dream", but his speeches against War, Poverty & Imperialism.
Interestingly enough, Dr. King saw a definite link between racism and exploitation, between racial and economic injustice. And once racist laws with their violent repression had been defeated, King's PRIMARY FOCUS was on economic justice--the fight for such justice being seen by him as a MULTIRACIAL STRUGLE of the dispossessed. That was the idea behind the Poor Peoples CAmpaign, and his proposed ECONOMIC BILL OF RIGHTS.
-Savant
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Will you side with Malcolm's radical critique of CAPITALISM, which he (like King) thought to be esential to the very foundation of racism? Both King and Malcolm thought, though they exprsssed it differently, that economic injustice and racial injustice are inseprable? Malcolm X, by the way, held that BOTH white liberals and conservatives were enemeies of the Black movement. The only difference, on his view, was that rightists like Barry Goldwater or George Wallace were OPENLY opposed to Black freedom. Malcolm thought that white liberals like Kennedy or Johnso "appeared " to allies when they weren't. If liberals were more dangerous for Malcolm, it's because their opposition was disguised as solidarity. To the extent that SOME white liberals did practice the deceptive hyposcrisy Malcolm attributed to them, I might say that he had a point--at least a partial point. YOu don't fight an adversary that you don't see, only those you do see. Yet, while Malcolm X had a point in his critique of white liberalism (or at least liberal establishment), he serious ERRS if he makes a general and sweeping claim that liberals are more dangerous than rightists. When I saw an old clip of a Goldwater rally with one participant carrying a placard reading "CRUSH the black revolt"--it's clear to me the the hypocrisy or cowardice of some liberals was/is not the greatest danger. The assumption that liberals are MORE dangerous than rightists may prove to be as disastrously FOOLISH as the stupid claim made by German Marxists that liberals & social democrats were more (or at least as)dangerous than the NAZIS. Germany and humanity paid dearly for that miscalculation.
Let's try not to waste words with OhReally. His purpose is to disrupt. We need to focus on the Kingian legacy and the Occupy Movement. Have you done any reading on the Poor Peoples Campaign and the proposed ECONOMIC BILL OF RIGHHTS?
-Savant
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Yes, indeed. You could one time find not only most Blacks voting Repubican,but many folk involved in Women's liberation and labor. But THAT Republican Party is dead. And when many Black conservatives point out that Frederick Douglass was Republican, they forget (conveniently?) that the Repubicans at THAT TIME were PROGRESSIVES; at least much more so on the whole that Democrats. Even KARL MARX was an Abe Lincoln supporter and sympathizer with Republicans and Reconstruction.(I wonder if Joe Jack____ knows about that?) By he way, I've a new thread: DR. MARTIN L KING, JR'S LEAGACY & the OCCUPY MOVEMENT: WOULD KING SUPPORT the 99%? Pay a visit.
You don't beg, you DEMAND. And where Dr. King waw heading entailed (in his own words) "a RADICAL REDISTRIBUTION or economic and political power." Nor does this involve only African-Americans, or even only Blacks of he world. Indeed, the whole world (America included) has to be radically transformed.
-Savant
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Of course, the talk of multiculturalism was not current back in the 1960s. But Dr. King's vision of a BELOVED COMMUNITY embraced not only Americans, but the whole of humanity. This is why he could could voice his protest against the racist, imperialist war in Vietnam--even when critics (some within Black freedom movement itself) insisted that he should "stick to civil rights." His global vision of a beloved community underlies his call for a GLOBAL struggle against poverty and exploitation even back in the 1950s. Isn't this what the 99% Movement is about TODAY? Also, if you are Canadian I would recommend a book called TRUMPET OF CONSCIENCE, a collection of speeches given on Canadian Broadcasting co back in 1967. It's worth the read.
Dr. Martin L. King at Chicago 1967 "Conference for a New Politics": [W]e have deluded ourselves into believing the myth that capitalism grew and prospered out of the Protestant ethic of hard work and sacrifices. The fact is that capitalism was built on the exploitation and suffering of black slaves and continues to thrive on the exploitation of the poor, both black and white, both here and abroad...The way to end poverty is to end the exploitation of the poor....We must recognize that the problems of neither racial nor economic injustice can be solved without a RADICAL REDISTRIBUTION of political and economic power."
RADCIAL REDISTRIBTUION? This is what Dr. King called for. This is what Malcolm X (post-Mecca) and Frantz Fanon (WRETHCED OF THE EARTH) called for. It is a REVOLUTIONARY DEMAND, whether made by an advocate on NONVIOLENCE (Dr. King) or by an advocate of armed insurgency (Fanon) Isn't this what the Occupy Movement is about? And aren't they pursuing this through the NONVIOLENT path advocated by Dr. King. This what I want commend the Occupy Movement in Bmore (and elsewhere for) This is the beginning of the triumph of freedom and justice. Down with plutocracy and racism! Victory to the 99%!
GUILTY: And PROUD of It! We are guilty of the charge with which the Right has FALSELY accused Barack Obama. We of Occupy America demand a RADICAL REDISTRIBUTION of economic and political power from the corporate plutocracy of 1% to the 99% of us who are the majority of the American people, and the majority of humanity.
-Savant
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GREAT!!! So, it seems this thread is catching on. I'm back from Occupy Baltimore. Obviouly, I didn't get arrested. LOL! A pretty good gathering, especially considering how cold it was/is. About 150--200 folk. This is ther first Occupy gathering since it began in Bmore in which a majority of the participants were African-Americans But as usual, the gathering was multiracial--Black s, whites, Jews, latinos, and a few Middle East folk. I think that the larger number of Black participants is due to the fact that the ALGEBRA PROJECT kids and some PROGRRESSIVE Black ministers pulled in more folk. Also, this time the Occupy protest happened in the heart of the EAST BALTIMORE GHETTO, walking distance from where I grew up and where some of my relatives still live. We protested in from the the new facility being built in the hood for the incarceration of youth. People were chanting "No education, no life!" Also, "funds for education not mass incarceration. " These slogans are especially characteristic of young people with the ALGEGRA PROJECT. This is a group of inner city teenagers, founded by Bob Moses (former head of SNCC in early 1960s)to help improve the quaity of inner city youth education, and also conscientize inner city you to fight for QUALITY EDUCATION as a CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT. Tough inner city kids, but socially conscious. I've supported that group for some years now. Google ALGEBRA PROJECT for more info. Basically, these kids and some progressive Black preachers are now down with the 99% Movement, crossing barriers of race to win the fight for democracy and social justice. Blacks, Latins, Whites, and others fighting for the common cause of justice. Victory to the 99%!
-Savant
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Did you see Sidney Poitier in PRESSURE POINT? Ok. The "I have a Dream" speech is a masterpiece of Christian liberal eloquence and liberal humanism. But...there's more to King, and I hope you check him out more thoroughly. You should own A TESTAMENT OF HOPE if you don't. Take a look at FROM CIVIL RIGHTS TO HUMAN RIGHTS: MARTIN LUTHER KING, JR. AND THE STRUGGLE FOR ECONOMIC JUSTICE, by Thomas F. Jackson. And, particularly in light of our discussion of King, economic justice and Occupy, you might find especially interesting a video called AT THE RIVER I STAND, concerning the Memphis sanitation workers strike which would be Dr. King's last campaign.
Hi Harrisson!
I haven't seen you post in a while. Then again I haven't been here much.:)
I have been on more serious discussion forums where haters and trolls are not allowed.:)
From what little I know about this topic I agree he would.
This white girl just wants to say that every time I watch Martin Luther King's famous "I Have A Dream speech" I get goosebumps!
They are playing some good movies today on TCM for Martin Luther King Day.
I just finished watching "The Defiant Ones" with Tony Curtis and Sidney Poitier.
I love Sidney Poitier!!
The White Girl. lol
Some of the workers who were there in 1968 are interviewed in that film. And guess what: While still a student at VAnderbilt U, I met Rev. Jim Lawson, friend of Dr. King, a local leader of the movement who organized support for T.O.Jones and the striking workers. Check it out!
Yes, even in his 80s I believe Dr. King with be with us in the fight for ecnomic justice. The Poor Peoples Campaign as he envisioned resembles today's Occupy Movement in a lot of ways.
-Savant
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What do the 99% want?
Govt policies to encourage real local community economic independence, rather than ever-increasing corporate control of everything from hamburgers to carpet cleaning.
An end to corporate welfare.
Well-conceived social programs that are effective and which lead to self-sufficiency rather than dependent poverty maintenance.
Foreign policy which protects the USA and encourage freedom worldwide, rather than enabling corporate piracy and war profiteering.
Trade and labor policies which enable a strong middle class rather than the current slide into neo-feudalism.
A culture of free exchange of ideas, rather than the steady consolidation of all media, including even publishing, in the hands of a few corporate feudalists.
Government by, for and of the PEOPLE rather than the corporate elites (the 1%).
Is that so much to ask in the Untied States of America? er... wait... not ask... DEMAND!!!
-Sinajuavi
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